Chair Rehab

We were lucky enough to have my sister and her family and then my parents visit back to back.  My parents trip was very last minute as my dad is going to have knee replacement surgery but was able to fit in a quick trip before the surgery so my parents decided to come visit.  They wanted to see the grand kids and take me some of my stuff that I have been keeping at their house (wedding dress, old decor, etc.) as well as a 1950s chair and turn of the century dresser I inherited from my grandparents.  My grandma passed in April so my parents have had the chair and dresser in the basement since they cleaned out her house in late April. 

My grandma (dad's mom) at her 94th birthday celebration, just a couple weeks before she passed; with her 3 great-grandsons; she also has 6 great-grand-daughters

And here is the chair that she gave me:

Except, these are the cushions it came with:

The cushions on it (seen in top pic), are from the matching rocker she gave me years ago.  We had this matching rocker in our bedroom until we moved to the lair. The rocker has been sitting in the attic since we made the move.

the webbing was all brittle and deteriorated and the wood needed some serious TLC

So I knew it needed some serious work but I was willing to take on the challenge.  I finally found a bit of time to tackle the beast this week. I started by removing all the old webbing and pulling all the staples.  Easier said than done-there were about a million staples  (even had to unscrew part of the chair to get the corner ones out).

I found some great elasticized webbing at Fabric Depot for $2.99 a yard plus everything was 30% off so 5.5 yards ended up costing me less than $12.  I didn't end up replacing the two horizontal straps as I realized they were added later and I don't think the chair needs them to be supportive.  I can always replace those straps in the future if needed.

Lastly, I cleaned the chair with some Murphy's Oil Soap and then gave it a good oiling with some Old English dark tint wood oil.  Just yesterday I decided to add some furniture wax to it for protection.  I did the same steps for our Lane coffee table while I was at it (don't you love how those two pieces complement each other so nicely even though they were from two separate grandmas?)

And there you have it...a repaired chair.  It is so comfy and I feel so lucky to have furniture pieces from Steve's (foot stool & round side table) and my own family in our living room.

Grandma & Grandpa visit Oregon!  My dad was nice enough to replace a toilet at our rental while he visited as well as repair our broken toilet seat-it was a loo kind of week :)

Can't believe she's already 2 months!

Camping at Cape Lookout State Park on the coast last weekend

Weekend Happenings.

Steve was at it again this weekend.  So much so that we actually have the plumber and electrician coming this week!!!  Woot!!!

Steve added a flat piece of wood (runs parallel to ceiling joists) to break the 20" gap between joists and to give the drywallers and cabinet builder a place to attach their materials

He reinforced the dog door as it was hard to do the job right before when we had plaster in the way...lucky Porter!

Steve cut the sink cabinet again to make it even smaller and now we have it temporarily installed in the basement.  How I love carrying dishes up and down the stairs!  Now our "kitchen" lives partially in the basement and partially in the dining room-oh what fun!  Thank goodness for the crock pot and having some groupon dinner coupons we need to redeem.

we have the micro, toaster oven, large toaster oven, burner plates, coffee maker, fridge and all the food in the dining room now

And I started to label where we want all of our electrical to make sure it all ends up right where we want it.

Next up?  We need to finish labeling all the electrical, I need to clean out the basement area below the kitchen the best that I can and tarp what I can't move (the laundry room is directly below) so that Steve can rip out the old kitchen flooring and install a new subfloor, move things in the attic to prep for drywall tape off and buy/start tarping the basement for drywall, buy insulation and start insulating as soon as the electrical and plumbing are complete....we hope to have drywall start as early as the end of next week!

So smart

In today's world, most furniture comes ready to assemble or pre assembled. Once assembled, most big pieces of furniture are big, heavy and awkward to move.
I am currently cleaning out around the top of the stairs at our house to make way for new stairs. I had forgotten just how easy it is to move our secretary's desk the we inherited from Steve's family. Just lift the parts off one by one restack them to put it back together. It even has little clips that would allow you to hook multiple units together side by side.
We had this piece in our dining room until we had our built-ins made but ever since it has been hidden upstairs. I can't wait to show this beauty off again once we remodel our upstairs.